Venezuela announced on Monday that it has suspended its energy cooperation agreements with Trinidad and Tobago in response to the arrival of the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Gravely in Port of Spain the previous day for joint military exercises.
The suspension targets a 2015 natural gas exploration agreement that allowed joint projects in shared offshore waters between the two nations, which are separated by just seven miles (11 kilometers) across a narrow strait.
Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who also serves as hydrocarbons minister, condemned the docking of the U.S. warship as a “hostile act,” accusing Trinidad’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of “aligning with U.S. warmongering” and turning her country into “an aircraft carrier of the American empire against Venezuela.”
President Nicolás Maduro confirmed the decision in a televised address, declaring:
“I have ordered the immediate suspension of all gas and energy cooperation with Trinidad until they cease being a platform for aggression against Venezuela.”
The measures affect the 2015 Dragon Gas Field license, signed between Venezuela’s state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), Shell, and the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NGC), as well as the 2018 Cocuina-Manakin Framework Agreement, covering cross-border gas fields that had allowed for joint exploration and revenue sharing.
Also halted are technical studies and surveys in the Gulf of Paria and Columbus Basin related to potential pipeline construction.
Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar dismissed Caracas’s accusations, describing the exercises as “routine” and emphasizing that Trinidad had diversified its energy sources and was not dependent on Venezuelan gas.
Over the past two months, the U.S. has deployed a significant naval presence in the Caribbean, including the USS Gerald Ford carrier group, stealth aircraft, attack submarines, destroyers, and around 10,000 Marines. While Washington maintains the buildup is part of a counter-narcotics initiative, many observers believe it signals preparations for a potential operation aimed at pressuring or removing the Maduro government.